A Moment In Time

As someone who loves music—who doesn’t?— and who loved watching music videos growing up—who didn’t?—dabbling in video editing was something I used to like doing. (Anybody?)

It was like cooking except it took way longer: Assembling footage, collating the stills, selecting the music, writing captions, creating a narrative, and editing everything to the groove, the lyrics of the song. It felt like doing art and craft, except on the computer.

Apparently, today’s smartphone apps make video editing as smooth as the ride you take home on the subway. In fact, you can edit a video on the ride you take home on the subway.

But as with any creative endeavor, there are no shortcuts, and footage needs to be shot and accumulated, the visuals paired, hand in glove, with the audio, the end product always at the forefront of the creative thought.

So when someone created a video montage capturing the intricate prep and execution of my surprise birthday party and uploaded it onto Youtube, I was bowled over.

Someone to share your good times
Someone whom you can count on
Someone whom when you turn to
Won’t turn away . . .

Have you ever received anything, anything at all, which upon the getting, realize it’s what you’ve always wanted?

It’s what you’d wanted, and forgotten all about, because it was you who tended to do those things for other people in the longago. And when finally someone does that for you, it’s like the lost years come crowding in, of creativity, artistry, and talent that is not your own, but bottled in high-res digital video format and gift-tagged with your name on it.